James A. Walker

James Alexander Walker (27 August 1832-21 October 1901) was a Confederate States Army Brigadier-General during the American Civil War and a member of the US House of Representatives (R-VA 9) from 4 March 1895 to 1 January 1899 (succeeding James William Marshall and preceding William F. Rhea).

Biography
James Alexander Walker was born at Mount Meridian, Augusta County, Virginia in 1832. He was expelled from the Virginia Military Institute in 1852 - weeks before graduation - by his instructor, Major Thomas J. Jackson, after challenging him to a duel due to Jackson's alleged challenging of Walker's integrity. He went on to become a lawyer in Newbern, Pulaski County, and he joined the "Pulaski Guards" of the Confederate States Army when the American Civil War broke out in 1861. He became Lieutenant-Colonel of the 13th Virginia Infantry in July 1861, and he was promoted to Colonel in 1862, leading his regiment during the Seven Days Battles. After Brigadier-General Arnold Elzey was wounded at the Battle of Gaines' Mill, he temporarily assumed brigade command, but he was replaced by Jubal Early four days later. He later took over the wounded Isaac R. Trimble's brigade during the Maryland campaign of 1862 and was wounded himself at the Battle of Antietam. He commanded one of Early's brigades at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and, after Jackson was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, he requested that Walker be given command of the Stonewall Brigade. Walker was thus promoted to Brigadier-General, leading the brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg two months later and led it for over a year. He was badly wounded while leading the brigade at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, and he assumed command of John Pegram's division after Pegram was killed during the Siege of Petersburg. Walker led the division until the end of the war at Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865, and, after the war, he served as a Democratic member of the House of Delegates from 1871 to 1872, as Lieutenant Governor from 1878 to 1882, and in the US House of Representatives from 1895 to 1899, switching allegiances to the Republican Party in 1893. He died in 1901 while running for the House a fourth time.